{"id":164559,"date":"2025-09-23T23:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/164559\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T23:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:13:11","slug":"can-spiders-really-be-beautiful-oh-yes-meet-the-5-prettiest-spiders-on-the-planet-from-metallic-blue-tarantulas-to-dancing-peacock-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/164559\/","title":{"rendered":"Can spiders really be beautiful? Oh yes&#8230; meet the 5 prettiest spiders on the planet, from metallic-blue tarantulas to dancing peacock spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They may send shivers down the spine of arachnophobes, but not all spiders are the stuff of nightmares. From dazzling dancers no bigger than a grain of rice, to velvet-coated rarities that look more like toys than terrors, these eight-legged wonders prove that beauty comes in the most unexpected forms. <\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the world\u2019s prettiest \u2013 and most fascinating \u2013 spiders.<\/p>\n<p>Prettiest spiders in the world<br \/>\nPeacock spider<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2309\" height=\"1299\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Peacock-spider-GettyImages-1648138064.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-116383\"\/>Getty<\/p>\n<p>Despite being the size of a grain of rice, a male peacock spider (Maratus) has to put on a spectacularly large show to attract a mate. He waves his back legs while dancing using a brilliantly-coloured fan attached to his abdomen.<\/p>\n<p>If the female approves, he is allowed to mate. If not, she injects a lethal dose of venom into his brain, rendering him nothing more than a meal. <\/p>\n<p>Ladybird spider<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2087\" height=\"1436\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ladybird-spider-.jpg\" alt=\"ladybird spider\" class=\"wp-image-104852\"\/>Getty images<\/p>\n<p>Ladybird spiders are one of the UK&#8217;s rarest spiders and largely limited to Dorset heathland, where they build silk-lined burrows complete with a canopy from which they ambush prey.<\/p>\n<p>The larger female is black, while the male resembles a miniature soft toy with white rings on its legs and a red body with black,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/insects-invertebrates\/facts-about-ladybirds\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ladybird<\/a>-like spots.<\/p>\n<p>Peacock tarantula<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2326\" height=\"1574\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/metallic-blue-tarantula.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141366\"\/>Micha L. Rieser, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p>The Gooty sapphire tarantula\u00a0Poecilotheria metallica, also known as the peacock tarantula, is a strikingly beautiful species of arboreal tarantula. It is well known for its vibrant metallic blue coloration, which makes it one of the most visually striking tarantulas in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Wasp spider<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"622\" height=\"483\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wasp-spider-eating-a-dragonfly_Silvia-Gaunt_623-f9c53e3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2058\"\/>Getty<\/p>\n<p>It is fairly easy to see how this spider got its name with its stripy abdomen and legs. The wasp spider is the biggest orb-weaver in Britain, with females regularly reaching a body length of 20mm. It is native to mainland Europe, North Africa and western Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Mirror or sequinned spider<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2228\" height=\"1194\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mirror-or-sequinned-spider.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141379\"\/>Poyt448 Peter Woodard, CC BY-SA 3.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p>These glittering arachnids&#8217; abdomens are patterned with cream, green, yellow, and red scales that glisten like mirrors \u2013 hence their name. Like the peacock spider, they are tiny \u2013 with their bodies ranging between 3-4mm long \u2013 and are found in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They may send shivers down the spine of arachnophobes, but not all spiders are the stuff of nightmares.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-164559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}